When I first bought my Palm Pre, I was forced to choose a new plan. First of all, I wasn't informed beforehand that my old plan would not work with this phone. But I called Sprint and this super friendly woman agreed to discount my new plan since I was not aware of the price jump. She then talked me into insurance on the phone, saying it was only a $50 deductible.

Well the next time my bill came, that discount was not added, so I should've questioned the insurance too. I didn't.

About 10 months later, and I've already paid like $70 into insurance on the phone. I lost it a couple days ago. Low and behold...$100 deductible. Yes, I realize that is apparently the cost for all smart phones or something. Just saying I was definitely told $50 or I never would have agreed. I mean shoot, I looked on e-bay last night and for $120 I found a SOLD refurbished Palm Pre WITH the Touchstone package. And that wasn't even a rare deal. They were all going for about that price and cheaper. Refurbished is what the insurance company provides, by the way, NOT new. So I am paying $170 for my refurbished palm pre.

A lot of things wrong here. First the Pre is REQUIRED to have an Everything plan so if you didin't want to change plan then you should have changed to another phone. Then the representative told you that you would get a discount knowing that Everything plans can't be discounted. Then you were told that the deductible was $50.00 instead of the actual $100.00 for a smartphone. I know that the person promised you things that were not true, but you had 30 days from the date of purchase to see if this was right for you. Did you research this phone before buying?

I bought the Pre back in October '09 and at the time the TEP deductible was $50. Around December or January I got a letter from Sprint in the mail informing me about the increase to $100 for the Pre. So if you bought your phone 10 months ago, it's very likely that the rep stated the correct amount. If it's not too late and you have GPS turned on on the phone, try what this customer did, cost her 5 bucks: http://community.sprint.com/baw/message/211915#211915

The Sprint insurance plan has got to be the worst in the industry, why am I even paying for it. I ended up having to pay a 100$ deductible to get my BB Curve replaced and on top of that I have to wait for them to ship it to me. For another 200$ I could've just purchased a new one. If I have to pay 100$ for a replacement on insurance then I should be able to get a replacement at a sprint store and not have to wait for it.

If I jumped into a swimming pool with the phone I’d almost understand but the phone failed from just being in my pocket. Such a steep deductible for such sub par service it's mind boggling

Sprint's Total Equipment Protection is very similar to almost every other carrier. Asurion essentially has a monopoly on almost all mobile phone insurance claims. They handle the phone insurance for Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Alltel, CellularOne, Rural Cellular, Cox, Time Warner, Telus, Palm, Boost, Clearwire, Comcast, MetroPCS, Mobile Protect (iPhone), and Centennial Wireless.

Each has slightly different deductibles, monthly charges, and terms and conditions. They are all very similar however. Sprint's TEP is $7 a month (that includes both Sprint ESRP [extended warranty] and the ERP [insurance] through Asurion, both available for $4 each separately), if your phone is lost or stolen, has physical or liquid damage then it is handled by Asurion. There is a $50/100 deductible depending on model, and you are overnighted a new phone with free shipping (it used to be an extra $12 for overnight shipping, this was changed recently to free overnight shipping). You have a total of 3 insurance claims per year through Asurion with ERP/TEP.

I would recommend taking a look at the overall differences between Sprint's insurance coverage and competitor's if only for the knowledge. They are all fullfilled through Asurion, but the terms vary from one carrier to another.

"A lot of things wrong here. First the Pre is REQUIRED to have an Everything plan so if you didin't want to change plan then you should have changed to another phone. Then the representative told you that you would get a discount knowing that Everything plans can't be discounted. Then you were told that the deductible was $50.00 instead of the actual $100.00 for a smartphone. I know that the person promised you things that were not true, but you had 30 days from the date of purchase to see if this was right for you. Did you research this phone before buying?"

I don't mind the plan change...i mind the PRICE change, so why would I change phones when someone told me the price was being reduced =D?

She didn't discount the plan itself...rather just added a $20 a month discount to my bills. Of course, she didn't ACTUALLY do this...but when I called back after my first bill to complain, someone did actually add the discount to my bills. It wasn't $20, however. I believe it was just $10.

So yeah, I think that all explains why I kept the phone. As for the insurance, I only knew what the sales person told me until I lost my phone on Sunday. If I had discovered before then that my deductible was, in fact, $100...I would have canceled the insurance a WHILE back.

Anyway, I explained all of this to sprint and they were happy to credit my account $50 since i've been a fairly long time customer. booya!

"I just want to share how Sprint Family Locator worked for me last night. Last night, Friday night, I was at our country fair. I lost my phone.

I was so devestated. I figured I was going to be out a few hundred dollars to get a new phone. Then after I got home, completely bummed out, I remembered how my phone has a locator like gps thing on it. I new it was on. So I went to Sprint.com to see if I could find my phone. Well, I had to sign up for the Family Locator for 5 bucks a month. I didn't care because I was very desperate at this point. So I signed up and located my phone. It showed me on a map, where it was on the fairgrounds. So I went back to the fair and found that it was in the main office. Someone had brought it there. So, I got my phone back thank goodness and never would have if I hadn't gotten the locator and thanks to some stranger who was kind enough to turn it in.

Thank you Sprint for having this option!"

That is the most amazing thing i have ever read. What i'm curious about is why sprint doesn't automatically offer a one time search when you report your phone as lost. That would save EVERYONE time and money. But yeah, wow...i'm making sure my locator is always on from now on.

P.S. I went back where i was hiking and found the phone...in a river. it's toast. but awesome idea!

The Sprint insurance plan has got to be the worst in the industry, why am I even paying for it. I ended up having to pay a 100$ deductible to get my BB Curve replaced and on top of that I have to wait for them to ship it to me. For another 200$ I could've just purchased a new one. If I have to pay 100$ for a replacement on insurance then I should be able to get a replacement at a sprint store and not have to wait for it.

If I jumped into a swimming pool with the phone I’d almost understand but the phone failed from just being in my pocket. Such a steep deductible for such sub par service it's mind boggling"

what exactly happened to your phone? you sure it wasn't something covered under warranty as well as insurance? I've read about a lot of people being mislead into paying an insurance deductible for an issue that was covered for free under the warranty.

"I just want to share how Sprint Family Locator worked for me last night. Last night, Friday night, I was at our country fair. I lost my phone.

I was so devestated. I figured I was going to be out a few hundred dollars to get a new phone. Then after I got home, completely bummed out, I remembered how my phone has a locator like gps thing on it. I new it was on. So I went to Sprint.com to see if I could find my phone. Well, I had to sign up for the Family Locator for 5 bucks a month. I didn't care because I was very desperate at this point. So I signed up and located my phone. It showed me on a map, where it was on the fairgrounds. So I went back to the fair and found that it was in the main office. Someone had brought it there. So, I got my phone back thank goodness and never would have if I hadn't gotten the locator and thanks to some stranger who was kind enough to turn it in.

Thank you Sprint for having this option!"

That is the most amazing thing i have ever read. What i'm curious about is why sprint doesn't automatically offer a one time search when you report your phone as lost. That would save EVERYONE time and money. But yeah, wow...i'm making sure my locator is always on from now on.

P.S. I went back where i was hiking and found the phone...in a river. it's toast. but awesome idea!

Asurion was looking at implementing a GPS tracking capability into the online claim site a little while ago. I haven't heard anything about it recently.

Also, the insurance portion of TEP (Through Asurion) covers lost/stolen, liquid and physically damaged devices. TEP also includes an extended warranty however through Sprint, in addition to covering wear and tear damage. You can take your phone into a service and repair location and have a tech take a look at it. As long as it doesn't have any physical or liquid damage they may be able to fix the problem or replace the phone for free. Without TEP the deductible for in store triage and a fix can range from $35 to $120 per incident depending on the issue. Even if your issue is not related to physical or liquid damage, you will still be referred to Asurion if that is the case. Physical and liquid damage overrides everything else covered by TEP, and you must go through Asurion.

A Sprint Rep posted on facebook last week that Asurion could now track lost phones, I couldn't find anything on Asurions website so I called them, They stated they now can/will track lost phones, It has to be within 3 days of being lost. They will not track stolen phones for privacy reasons(Who's? The Thief's?) They wouldn't explain why or who's privacy they were protecting, Just they won't track stolen phones.

yea sprint is the most awful provider out of everyone else. ive had many problems with the insurance and stuff with them, let alone sprint tried to ***** me over and they added an extra 6 months on my account, until i bitched them out for 3 hours and they finally changed it. i love how stupid it is how im paying so much money monthly for insurance for a phone thats only worth $50...im so hoping sprint goes out of buisness or someone else buys them out

When you first start your service with sprint, during the Welcome Call, the Total Equipment Protection should have been addressed during the call. If it wasn't then I personally apologize. Sprint has been changing the Welcome Call to include this necessary information and also so that when Welcome Call is done the rep isn't speed-talking and has time for any questions that may arise.

Regardless, Sprint should have provided you (sent by mail or email, depending on how you have it set up) with all of the details of what is provided by your insurance. I'm a huge advocate for customers doing their due diligence and making sure they find out about all the details on what their carrier provides them.

I am sorry you had a poor experience. When I get a new phone, I love to know details about it. We have resources online and on sprint.com that tell you all about your device. I'm really surprised that the connection wasn't made by the rep that you have a smartphone - then again we are identifying the device via it's model number instead of a device name. People make mistakes and no one is perfect.